Direct chromatographic methods for the rapid determination of homogentisic acid in strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo L.) honey

Two rapid and direct chromatographic methods based on reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and ion chromatography (IC) were developed for the determination of homogentisic acid (HA) in honey. This is the marker of the botanic origin of strawberry tree honey. The methods were validated and tested using 22 samples from Sardinia, Italy. The IC method is faster than the RP-HPLC one (6 min versus 13 min of total run), but it is slightly less sensitive (the limit of detection (LOD), is 26 mg kg(-1) versus 15 mg kg(-1)) and reproducible (relative standard deviation, RSD, of 10.4 and 4.4%, respectively). The whole dataset of validation parameters allows both the proposed methods to be considered as bias-free (by recovery tests, comparison of analytical results of the two independent methods and analysis of a synthetic sample) and precise (both the techniques show a repeatability better than 2% repeatability in the range between 70 and 600 mg kg(-1)).